Controlled access areas have become increasingly commonplace in modern society. From hospitals to gated communities, sensitive industries to prison complexes, there is a need to control the flow of human capital. Systems for doing so are often rudimentary, such as those that utilize a guard who checks an individual's identification and access rights. Other systems involve physical keycards and passes, which allow access past static checkpoints.
These systems are often insufficient for controlling and tracking the movement of guests who have access for a particular, limited purpose. Once past a static checkpoint, control systems have limited means for tracking a guest's movements. Furthermore, guests may become lost or enter into areas beyond the scope of their invitation.
The hospitality industry is highly competitive with companies always looking for competitive advantages, whether it be on price, features or customer service. In recent years, in an effort to differentiate themselves from other competitors, many hospitality companies such as Hotels, Restaurants and Casinos have implemented customer reward and tracking programs. These programs reward customers for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, spending time at specific locations, spending money at specific locations and performing certain activities. Additionally, the reward programs provide a treasure trove of data for the companies on their customers, which assist in marketing efforts, administrative decisions and more.
Current systems require both the customer and company to proactively perform a manual task in order to be recognized at the location and receive the proper rewards program recognition. Most of the time this is done by the customer handing a card to a company representative and that card information then entered into an existing system. This process is often insufficient for proper tracking of the customer, time consuming and dependent on the customer physically remembering to hand the card to the company representative.
It is to addressing or reducing these problems that the current disclosure is directed.